[Feature Request] Filter out locked issues or pull requests

[klaasnicolaas]

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Hello!

Background:
I developed a custom GitHub action that automatically locks an issue or pull requests if it was already closed due to inactivity.

What currently happens in the code is that it retrieves a list of closed issues or pull requests (e.g. with this API endpoint). If a repository have more closed issues in the future, the list you retrieve will also become larger and larger (okay... still in batches of 100). As a result, you will also make more and more requests to the REST API.

Feature request:
I would like to see the option to filter what I get back as an REST API response. For example, I only want the list of issues with state: 'closed', and filter out what is already locked: true. This also has the advantage that the REST API does not have to be accessed as often, which could reduce the number of requests to the server.

Before creating this discussion I couldn't find anything similar. Apologies if this is a duplicate.

Thnx!

./Klaas

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[LangLangBart]

I only want the list of issues with state: 'closed', and filter out what is already locked: true.

Did you experiment with the search¹ endpoint of the REST API coupled with search qualifiers² to refine your results? For example:

 gh api \
  --method GET \
  /search/issues \
  --raw-field 'q=repo:klaasnicolaas/home-assistant-glow is:closed is:issue is:locked' \
  --jq '.items[] | [.number, .title] | @tsv'

#  421     Not a bug - request for better guide when changing parameters
#  151     strange readings 
#  34      Photodiode sensitivity not enough for led detection + red led stays on

---

This also has the advantage that the REST API does not have to be accessed as often, which could reduce the number of requests to the server.

The same can also be done with the GraphQL API³ if desired, to only request data that is needed. Pagination has been neglected in the example below and must be managed by the user.

Variable

{"filter": "repo:klaasnicolaas/home-assistant-glow is:closed is:issue is:locked"}

Query

query ($filter: String!) {
  search(type: ISSUE, query: $filter, first: 100) {
    issueCount
    nodes {
      ... on Issue {
        title
        number
      }
    }
  }
}

Result

{
  "data": {
    "search": {
      "issueCount": 3,
      "nodes": [
        {
          "title": "Not a bug - request for better guide when changing parameters",
          "number": 421
        },
        {
          "title": "strange readings ",
          "number": 151
        },
        {
          "title": "Photodiode sensitivity not enough for led detection + red led stays on",
          "number": 34
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Footnotes

1. REST API endpoints for search - GitHub Docs ↩

2. Searching issues and pull requests - GitHub Docs ↩

3. Migrating from REST to GraphQL - GitHub Docs ↩

[klaasnicolaas]

I hadn't found that one yet, but I'll definitely try it out. I see possibilities to make my code even more efficient with that endpoint.

Nevertheless, I don't think it is a bad feature request to add an extra query parameter for more targeted filtering 😅

[klaasnicolaas]

In the meantime I have been able to experiment with both the search and the graphQL options. The search does not appear to be an option due to the strict (secondary) rate limit, which you quickly encounter (especially if it is processed in an action that runs on many repositories).

Graphql therefore seems to be the best solution. I still hope that there could be a filter option on the REST API.

./Klaas